Top US diplomat for South Asia traveling to SLanka

Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top U.S. diplomat for South Asia is going to Sri Lanka to discuss post-war reconciliation as Washington prepares to press that government at the U.N.'s top human rights body.

Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal will travel to Sri Lanka on Friday, and discuss with officials post-conflict reconciliation, justice and accountability issues.

She will also travel to Jaffna and meet with officials of a newly elected provincial council in the north of the country — the former epicenter of the civil war that ended in 2009.

Biswal will then go to London and Geneva to discuss U.S. sponsorship of a resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Council in March.

International pressure is growing on Sri Lanka to probe allegations of war crimes during the conflict.